How do I clean my living room sheers stained with soot?

Marilyn
by Marilyn

My living room sheers have been stained with soot coming from the heat vent in the living room. I've tried a number of things to clean them, including ideas from different cleaning sites. Nothing worked I finally gave up and bought new sheers. I also made sure the vent filters we're clean or new. Same thing happened to the new sheers. Can you or one of your readers recommend ANYTHING. BTW, I have heating vents in both my living room and dining room, so it's five window with double sets of sheer curtains.Thank you in advance for your help.

  6 answers
  • Anonamouse5 Anonamouse5 on Apr 06, 2019

    There should NOT be any soot in your heating system. Have an HVAC specialist check your system ASAP

  • William William on Apr 06, 2019

    What kind of heat do you have? There should not be any soot coming out of the vents!

  • Patti Nicholas Patti Nicholas on Apr 06, 2019

    First of all your ducts need to be cleaned, it’s an expense but well worth it. Imagine all that dirt on your curtains is also entering you as you breathe. Now try soaking your curtains in Molly’s Suds oxygen whitener. Don’t be alarmed that it says whitener, it works on color fabric too.

    https://www.grove.co/catalog/product/oxygen-whitener/?v=941&attrsrc=18&attrpg=catalog

    • Claudia Claudia on Apr 07, 2019

      That’s a good product. It uses oxygen to remove the carbon. Carbon will bind to the fabric with water. Use the solution on the old shears if you haven’t tossed them yet AFTER you do the newer ones. After fires they run oxygenators to help the release of the carbon.

  • Marilyn Marilyn on Apr 06, 2019

    Thank you to all that responded to my question. I found out the hard way that my furnace needed to be replaced. I have the furnace checked annually, and no one noticed there was a hole inside, which was spewing the soot. Ugh! Virginia space at all

    Well we had to get a new furnace about three weeks ago, ($6000.) I hadn't planned on spending now, but.......

    So now, we are good to go!


    I really like the sheer curtains I now have and the curtains before, so I'd like to see if I can get them white again. I will try "Molly's Suds". I've never seen that before, so I'll see if I can find it on Amazon.

    Again, thanks

    • Ellis Ellis on Apr 11, 2019

      Actually, you found out the easy way! The hole in your furnace was allowing harmful gases to come up into your living space, and finding it before it caused you major problems was a piece of luck.


      Hard to think of it that way, but I once woke up to a house filled with smoke because of the same problem. The plumber said we were lucky to wake up. It also cost us a bundle for a new furnace.

      Live and be well!

  • Marilyn Marilyn on Apr 11, 2019

    Glad to hear you found the problem before you and your family had major problems.

    My problem was slow. I just put up my "new" sheers for this past Christmas. I was taking them down to start my spring cleaning. They were new "white sheers", and I was shocked at the dirt (soot}. I am going to try all the suggestions I got to see if they will be usable again. I hope I don't have to purchase new sheers for five windows again. Not so soon anyway.


    All the Best!

  • Agnes Chrzanowska Agnes Chrzanowska on Mar 31, 2021

    Chlorax will for sure help but man that is going to be one tough job